Newsletter of the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center

February 27, 2017

Mary Kathryn Nagle (NIWRC Bureau Speaker, and counsel for NIWRC at Pipestem Law) has written a new play, Fairly Traceable, that opens on March 10, 2017 at the Autry Museum of Western History in Los Angeles

Mary Kathryn Nagle (Cherokee), Playwright

Fairly Traceable is a new play written by Cherokee playwright and attorney Mary Kathryn Nagle, and produced by Native Voices at the Autry, with Native Voices Artistic Director, Randy Reinholz (Choctaw) and Jean Bruce Scott as Executive Producers.

Nagle’s latest play tells the romantic story of two young Native attorneys (one a citizen of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, the other a citizen of Pointe-au-Chien, a Tribe located along the bayou in southern Louisiana), fighting to save their love, and Tribal Nations, from climate change.

At a time when Tribal Nations—and many non-Natives—are standing in solidarity with Standing Rock, Fairly Traceable presents a critical Native perspective on what it truly means to be an environmentalist. As one of Fairly Traceable’s characters, SUZANNE, states to a non-Native law professor:

We don’t need your “environmental law” to tell us our homes are worth saving. We’ve known that since we came into existence. Under our law, we recognize the Earth as our Mother because we come from her. She gives us life. And as Native women, we give life. The future generations of our Nations come from our bodies. So we, Native women, we’re the environment. We’re inseparable. Without us, our Nations cease to exist.

As Native women, are very familiar with the connection between respect for our lands and safety for our women. In fact, this is the point made in the amicus brief NIWRC filed on February 21 in the United States District Court, District of Columbia.

We find ourselves at a point in time when Native perspectives on protecting the sacred—our way of life, our lands and our waters—are vitally important. Native Voices at the Autry’s production of Fairly Traceable presents a unique opportunity to celebrate the talents of Native theatre artists and educate non-Natives on issues related to tribal sovereignty and saving the environment.